News / asylum seekers
‘Government’s immigration proposals are against everything we stand for’
The government’s latest plans to overhaul the immigration system are sadly indicative of the UK’s hostile environment and threaten the right to seek asylum.
This is the stark message from Bristol City of Sanctuary bosses, who have expressed their shock and concern at the proposals announced by home secretary Priti Patel on Wednesday.
Bristol’s Labour mayor Marvin Rees has also criticised the plans, arguing “simply declaring one group of people as unworthy of support does little to improve the situation on the ground for them or for the communities they are part of”.
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Under what has been labelled the “most significant overhaul of the asylum system in decades”, anyone deemed to have entered the UK “illegally” is likely to have their claim dismissed.
Patel has also pledged to “rapidly remove those with no right to be here in the UK” under the plans that she claims will make the system fairer and clamp down on people smuggling.
Bristol City of Sanctuary, a charity that works to make the city an inclusive and welcoming place for all, argues the proposals would punish people forced to take overland routes to claim asylum in the UK and grant those targeted for deportation less entitlement to support and family reunion rights.
“We are extremely worried about the impact these proposals will have on people seeking sanctuary here,” says Anna Wardell, the interim manager of Bristol City of Sanctuary.
“They are sadly indicative of how hostile current UK immigration policies are; policies that disregard that each person seeking sanctuary here is a human being.
“People who are forced to make dangerous and life-threatening journeys will – according to the home secretary – be punished for the route they have taken to find safety. This is against everything we stand for.”
Wardell says the proposals are a threat to the right to seek asylum, a right that was enshrined in international law more than half a century ago, and undermines the history of offering sanctuary to people who need it.
Mayor Marvin Rees has criticised the government’s new immigration proposals – photo courtesy of CB Bristol Design
Writing in the i, Rees said: “The government’s proposals seek to make a clear distinction between ‘worthy’ refugees who arrive via official resettlement routes, and ‘unworthy’ asylum seekers who ask for protection from here in the UK.
“But the complexity of people’s lives and situations can never be reduced to such a clear binary.”
He added: “I have no time for ideology divorced from practice.”
The home secretary says the government is addressing the challenges of illegal immigration head-on through the proposals and “building a system that upholds our reputation as a country where criminality is not rewarded, but which is a haven for those in need”.
Bristol City of Sanctuary agrees the asylum system is in need of a large overhaul, branding the current state of play “ineffective and inhumane”, yet says the new proposals are anything but fair.
Main photo by Micro Rainbow
Read more: ‘We must speak truth to power until every person is valued equally’
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